On Wednesday, Oct. 24 and Thursday, Oct. 25, Tipmont hosted Kilowatts, Brats, & Bytes to share our progress on delivering fiber internet, video, and voice services. Thank you to all who attended. For those that weren't able to attend, this is the information we shared at the event.

Why we're offering fiber internet, video and voice

You spoke to us and we listened. Tipmont has been on a two-year journey asking our customers for input and guidance as we evaluated the possibility of offering broadband, video and phone service. Your guidance to us was key to the board’s decision to offer these essential services. Affordable high speed broadband in particular, is clearly an essential service that many of you said you needed.

What we've done so far

In 2015, we began building fiber to connect each of our substations. At the time, we did not know whether we would deploy fiber to the home. But we did know that we would be able to use fiber to benefit our electric operations and that if we ever wanted to deliver fiber-to-the-home, this backbone would be necessary.

As of Oct. 18, 2018, the backbone network is complete. We're already using it to monitor our substations in real-time, helping us respond more efficiently to outages.

A New SCADA System

What you see here is a screen shot of a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, or SCADA system. This system allows us to monitor and control substation equipment in real time. In other words, in the event of a power outage, chances are pretty good we are aware of the outage as soon as it occurs. This allows us to remotely restore power or to send Tipmont’s fantastic lineman to restore service more quickly.

The data that supports this application travels over our fiber optic backbone.

Broadband build strategy

Our build strategy is simple: Provide state-of-the-art service to every Tipmont customer.

Today, our build plan is spread out over eight years. In a moment, you'll find out how you how you can help influence where we build.

Our test customers

Today, our crews are building the first fiber-to-the-home fiber lines near our headquarters in Linden, IN. We are on schedule to turn on our first test customers in mid-November.

This test period will last for two months and will allow us to trial every step of the process, including installation and connection, service features and equipment, customer and technical support, and billing.

Beta customers

After the alpha test phase is over, we will begin the beta phase, which will allow us to refine what we learned during the first phase in Linden. The beta phase will occur in the orange shaded area shown below. This construction is slated to occur in the first quarter of 2019.

The first map shows the beta area as part of our entire electric footprint. The second zooms in on the beta area that includes the towns of New Richmond, Romney and Linden.

Let us know you're interested!

This map shows the registrations we’ve received thus far at join.tipmont.org. We have not determined where we will build next, but your interest will help drive that.

If you live in this area and are interested in being a test customer, please sign up today!

Service Pricing

Our pricing is set for board approval on Oct. 31, 2018. We will announce the pricing on Tuesday, Nov. 6 at join.tipmont.org. What we can share today are some pricing ranges on the following packages we're unveiling for the first time. We can also share that:

The price will be market competitive offering greater speeds and local service.

There will be no hidden costs and no promotional gimmicks.

There will be no contracts and no fine print.

Internet packages

Tipmont's internet packages

Above are the three internet packages that will be available. These packages will range from the mid-$60’s to the mid-$90s.

Symmetrical speeds

Also, note that each package has symmetrical upload and download speed. This is an important differentiator.

We’re using more upload bandwidth than ever before. Video conferencing, interactive learning, online gaming, high-definition live streaming, and voice over IP (VoIP) calls all require a constant two-way communication. Even email and word processing programs are increasingly hosted in cloud (think Gmail or Office 365). Further, the needs only increase when multiple users and devices share the same network.

Voice and Video

Tipmont's video packages

Above are the four video packages that will be available. These packages will range from $100 to $160. You can also download a preliminary channel guide. Please note that this channel guide is subject to change.

One set top box is included with each video package and more are available for an additional fee. We will also offer DVR service featuring a 1 terabyte hard drive.

Voice packages will include: unlimited local and long-distance calling (within the contiguous U.S.), caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, and voicemail. Pricing for this service will be in the mid-$30s. The phone service will work with your existing landlines, provided you don’t have rotary phones.

Let us know you're interested!

if you’re not done so already, please visit join.tipmont.org to register your interest for our fiber project. It’s free and takes only a few minutes. Then, tell your friends and neighbors to sign up. Demonstrating your interest is very important as it helps us identify the parts of our service territory where the interest is highest.

Thank you.

As you can imagine, the Tipmont electric system took many years to build. Building the fiber network will be as great a challenge as building the electric system – but it’s a challenge we are prepared to meet! Tipmont has dedicated thousands of hours in preparation over the last few years – and we’re ready!

Your demonstrated interest and commitment can help accelerate the build process. If you have any additional questions, give us a call at 800-726-3953 or send an email to memberservice@tipmont.org.